For writers (and anyone who wants to join in): "AbilityResults"

[x4000]

(We've got a roster of 7 writers working on this right now, and 2 folks working on commands, so it's moving along well.  But more help is always welcome since many hands make light work, and there's a lot of work.  So here's an email I sent to those folks, also just copied here.)

Hey guys,

Last one for today!

The tab is AbilityResults on here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d3pL_cz8vkCmvkt5Ly63asvd2rHPqPKVoS2_ytCTxiE/edit#gid=919513379

These are like any other events, however these are events that are a result of the usage of a special ability by a race against another race: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l1zPgVQZNLXbGoc9IwWWyaCxYCxajdvun9mVF6HYaTM/edit#gid=806118553

Right now there are a lot of abilities that I've not started documenting, but I'm going to start getting those filled out over the weekend.

What is this??
Certain buildings can be configured to periodically do something (good or bad) to races in neighboring territories to their territory.  In a lot of cases you might do this, or in other cases AIs will do this to you or to one another.

These are distinct from the other kinds of events in that these are always international.  They are also written in a voice that can be appropriate for the race that this is happening to (which could in theory be any of the 14 races, not just the 8 playable ones).  Not all abilities can hit all races, though.  You can't give a disease to a robot or a sentient rock, for instance.

Brief notes:

1. Pay scale: same as for the other tabs. ($1 fully writing a line, $0.40 writing the commands and setting the icon)

2. Overall volume: please see the Work Goals column in the Abilities tab here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l1zPgVQZNLXbGoc9IwWWyaCxYCxajdvun9mVF6HYaTM/edit#gid=806118553

It will vary a lot by ability.  At the time of this writing there are merely 6 abilities noted there, but by Monday it will be closer to 20ish if not more.

3. Note that not all of the service types will be present in act 1: see the first tab here for reference, in case it comes up: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l1zPgVQZNLXbGoc9IwWWyaCxYCxajdvun9mVF6HYaTM/edit#gid=1801615012

4. In your DisplayText, please make sure to write this in the second person.  When it is one race talking to another race, then it will be prefixed with something like "Evucks to Andors: You included your sources with this, yes?  Hmm.  I suppose... it could be useful."

5. The ForRace column notes who this is happening to, not who did it.  These should be nonspecific enough that anyone could have done it, except in the unusual abilities where only one race can do it at all (Andor gifting, Evuck infecting).

6. These have a Pos column which notes if this is seen by the race-this-happened-to as a good thing or a bad thing.  In some cases the actual thing that happens to them might be good -- the evucks get a buff for a while when you try to infect them with a disease -- but they still view it as a negative thing (you tried to infect us!).  Or it's a "bad" thing (you dump bodies on the Thoraxians), but to them it's actually positive all around because they eat the bodies and don't even realize you were trying to do something unpleasant.

6. With the vast majority of these, the focus should be inward.  Definitely no other races should be mentioned by name.  We might be on a "conquer the faceless natives" mission if we're Burlusts (jerks), but that's about as international as we get with these.  We may well be interacting with other races as part of the gameplay, but we'v just gotten to the planet and right now our first priority is... what? Establishing ourselves, certainly.

7. There is an Override column that, when set to 1, means that for that InternationalAbilityType and ForRace combo, it will only use lines with Override set to 1.  So in other words, there are some general lines about "yuck you put bodies on us," but we don't want those getting mixed in on the Thoraxians.  So they have Override set to true on their version so that they only ever give the "thanks for the snack" positive reaction.

Rule of thumb with the override, you only use that if you want the race's reaction to the event to not include the "used for anyone" regular pool of events in addition to whatever is explicitly defined for them.

Thanks!
Chris

[Misery]

....there are other tabs?  Ugh, I hadnt even noticed that.

Yeesh, gonna be a ton of events indeed, as you'd said.  Sure aint gonna be a lack of variety with these!  This game as a whole is looking to have a boatload of content overall.

I'm just sticking with the main tab for now, so I dont get lost somehow.